It’s true down here outside the Metro area (and in some places inside the city, too).
6 Likes
Not exactly new info, but
While previous studies have found a link between red meat consumption and type 2 diabetes risk, this study, which analyzed a large number of type 2 diabetes cases among participants being followed for an extended period of years, adds a greater level of certainty about the association.
The researchers found that consumption of red meat, including processed and unprocessed red meat, was strongly associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Participants who ate the most red meat had a 62% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those who ate the least. Every additional daily serving of processed red meat was associated with a 46% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and every additional daily serving of unprocessed red meat was associated with a 24% greater risk.
My takeaway is to eat less red meat, but especially avoid processed crap. Cutting as much processed foods out of our diet as possible will make a significant difference. Note that processed meats run roughly double the risk of unprocessed. This is an association study, and makes no cause-and-effect claims, but the numbers are convincing, and it is supported by numerous previous studies. I think this is pretty actionable info. Unfortunately, it is the processed foods that are so much more affordable, so once again, it will be the poorer consumers most affected by the risk. But info is info, and we need to be informed.
7 Likes
This is well known to us pediatric types, but apparently has not seeped out to the general public yet…
6 Likes
Yah. In the way back time when our kid was turning one I checked the nutritional info on one of those. Very quickly returned it to the shelf. Tons of sugar and ultra-processed. We had to use infant formula but our kid could easily digest and loves cow milk. I remember our pediatrician warning us against the toddler formulas too. Said they had too much extra sugar
5 Likes
Uh oh…
3 Likes
This is an issue even outside of storms and such. We have an increasing issue with pharmacies suddenly closing due to lack of staff. That sign with posted hours on the window? Yeah, not really. Only if they can staff it. More accurately, “Open when possible.” We see this most often in the outlying communities who only have one pharmacy. But it is getting worse.
9 Likes
Alas, if there were something other than profit as a priority.
But now I am speaking of socialized medicine, and the European model of healthcare.
Until I read that article, I hadn’t really given a thought to “pharmacy deserts” but of course, if there can be food deserts in the U.S. where there’s no grocery store (and/or farmer’s market, etc.) nearby, there can surely be other kinds of scarcity deserts, include pharmacy deserts.
Heaven help any medically fragile American living in one of those. And sooner or later, it’s likely to be nearly all of us, should we have the luxury of living into old age. Or maybe not a luxury. Hard to say…
8 Likes
Yep. We’re staggering our vaccinations so we can tend to each other if we have bad reactions (flu and COVID). Mr. Linkey tried Friday. We can schedule, but they are booked for a couple weeks and he has a work trip coming up, so we asked at the pharmacy recently and they recommended trying for a walk-in appointment. 10 past, ideally, since appointments are on the half hour.
So he went to our regular pharmacy in the grocery store 10 past nine, when they open there. No staff, no vaccines.
So he went to another drug store that offers walk ins. No vaccines. And the pharmacist working that day had come up all the way from Mass to fill staffing gaps.
I think he ended up trying 4 places, to no avail.
We do have an appointment this coming week, but of course that means nothing if there’s no pharmacist. It’s crazy out there.
6 Likes
Yeah, about that… Thanks to the neoliberal nonsense of the past ~30 years the for profit motive has crept into the healthcare sector and is now firmly embedded - just not quite as deep as in the US, and still somewhat hobbled by regulations.
There was a “reform” in 1986 in Germany (thanks a lot, Helmut Kohl) that allowed hospitals to be operated with the intent to realize a profit. This was the starting point. Having mostly conservative/liberal coalitions in power since then, with the intermezzo off a ‘New Labour’-inspired coalition of social democrats and greens inbetween, hasn’t helped much.
3 Likes
I absolutely agree that the near-universal use of earbuds for hours at a time in kids is a serious problem, especially at the volumes they seem to all be at. If I find it bothersome across the room, it’s too damn loud to be in your ears. But this:
With sound machines, often used to lull infants and children to sleep, the AAP warns that they are often too loud for healthy listening.
“The AAP recommends that parents and caregivers consider that if an environment sounds too loud for an adult, it probably is too loud for a child. ‘Too loud’ can mean having to raise your voice to speak with someone just an arm’s length away,” the pediatricians’ group said.
If you have a sound machine (white noise machine, many other names) turned up this loud, you are not “lulling them to sleep,” you are drowning them out. It would never have occur to me to have to warn parents about this, but here we are…
9 Likes
Some of the crib/baby sleep things are really loud. We had a sleep music thing designed to attach to the crib and never used the medium or high volume. Way too loud for something in the crib. My primary requiment for head phones was over-ear and volume limiter. I could only find a pair where the volume limiter could be turned off. I taped it to the on position.
But our kid will get older and they will want ear buds 
one battle at a time…
6 Likes
Gifted article
8 Likes
This is a complicated issue, because there are documented benefits as well. (Worth mentioning that this is a discussion regarding preterm infants in NICUs, immunocompromised by definition and vulnerable to things that would not normally be a problem.)
Probiotic supplements may be used to prevent necrotizing enterocolitis, a dangerous infection affecting premature infants that inflames and kills intestinal tissue. The condition affects up to 9,000 infants a year, with a death rate of about 50%.
And yet
The products, which supplement regular feeding and contain live organisms such as bacteria or yeast, can lead to invasive, potentially fatal infections or disease, the FDA said Thursday.
One death this year and more than two dozen reports of injuries since 2018 may be tied to the supplements, FDA officials said in a statement. The agency said it is also investigating additional reports of injuries and deaths.
Full term healthy babies are remarkably resilient, and I do worry that this will cause folks to abandon probiotics as a whole. Breast-fed babies get a dose of pre- and probiotics every time they nurse. Babies who are taking solids can take yogurt for a good probiotic supplement. But more vulnerable babies are harder to make a statement about. My best advice is to talk to your pediatrician if you have questions. And for at-risk premies in the NICU? This question is still up in the air. Leave it to the docs for now. Hate to say it, but there is no definitive answer at this point. Avoid them, and increase the risk for NEC, or take them and increase the risk for sepsis? The numbers are not definitive at this point. It looks like the benefit may outweigh the risk, but this is not a done deal yet. Stay tuned. More research to come.
9 Likes
In ahocking, who could possibly have foreseen this, kind of news:
I don’t know the details of how this funding was cut. But i have to suspect it had to do with Republican demands to defund anything remotely connected with sex.
The Houston Health Department is in the midst of what it calls a “rapid community outreach response” because of syphilis cases increased by 128% among women from 2019 to 2022, and congenital syphilis cases went from 16 in 2019 to 151 in 2021.
Tell me again about “pro-child” please
7 Likes
OK, so this is neither a re-Boing, nor a re-re-Boing. This shit is still ongoing, apparently.
The sweeping warning and recommendation for a recall of 26 products comes amid a string of eye drop contamination problems this year. Most notably, an outbreak of extremely drug-resistant bacterial infections linked to EzriCare Artificial Tears came to light at the beginning of the year. At the latest count, 81 people in 18 states were infected. Four people died in connection with the outbreak, four others required having one of their eyeballs surgically removed, and 14 other people lost vision. In March, the FDA warned of two other eye drop products, from Pharmedica and Apotex, which were not linked to the outbreak but raised concerns regarding non-sterility.
So, maybe just no OTC eye drops for a while, until this shit show gets straightened up?
6 Likes
This quote really pissed me off, from the CBS article linked below
This is infuriating for a few reasons," Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog at U.S. PIRG Education Fund, in a statement. “First, prior to this FDA warning, there have been three major eye drop recalls this year for bacterial contamination or unsterile products. Why has it taken this long for the FDA to discover this much broader problem?”
Because the FDA has been systemically starved for funding for most of the last 40 years. They don’t have the inspectors they need to adequately regulate the industry and are constantly being sued to further limit their remit.
4 Likes
The defunding of FDA is also slowing approvals for new products. The review time for moderate-hazard medical devices is supposed to be 90 days but it has ballooned to about three times that.
5 Likes
When I was put on Arimidex, the first time I went in for the usual checkup and my onco asked me how I was doing – asking about bone pain first, because that’s the reason most people stop taking it – my response was that yes, there was bone pain, but the biggest symptom for me was a type of depression that felt different than anything I was used to. As I was talking, she moved over to the computer, and when I finished the couple of sentences she said she had already sent an anti-depression prescription to the pharmacy in the building for me to pick up immediately after the appointment.
Apparently it’s a well known problem, and she wasn’t taking any chances.
6 Likes
According to complaints received by the FDA’s reporting system, there are at least seven cases in five states: Arizona (1), Louisiana (1), Maryland (1), Missouri (1), North Carolina (2), and a remaining case in an unidentified state. The FDA reported that it has received additional reports of illnesses and is evaluating them.
Recalled WanaBana pouches were sold nationwide and were available through online retailers, including Amazon and Dollar Tree. The other recalled brands were found at select grocery stores.
Can we not just have some quality control in this shit? Please???
1 Like
